Supplier Diversify Thought Leaders and Top Experts Offer Insights with Powerful Essay: Redefining Corporate America's Engagement with Black America: The Intersection of Value and Values

CHICAGO, Oct. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ms. Michel and Mr. Moore, author of the RGMA Five Levels of Supplier diversity, leveraged their collective 100+ years of marching, picketing, debating, negotiating, training and advocating for sustainable advancements in racial equity and economic opportunities for Black people and other minority groups to create a powerful essay on America's ultimate aha moment on race, the murder of George Floyd. In the essay, they captured the emotions experienced by most who watched the tragic video.

Harriet Michel was the first woman CEO of the New York Urban League before joining the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) in 1988. Ralph Moore marched with Reverend Jesse Jackson while in college, and has worked in the field of minority business development and supplier diversity for 46 years, so the authors have witnessed "the struggle" in real time and they concur that the current movement has a unique sense of purpose and cohesiveness. They write that:

"America is collectively saying "Black Lives Matter!" and corporate America's voice is an essential addition to this moment of transformation."

As students of history, Ms. Michel and Mr. Moore provide context to America's role in the denial of racial equity and economic justice for Black people:

"American corporations had always valued shareholder equity over racial equity, until the George Floyd murder."

Reflecting on their decades of thought-leadership in minority supplier development, the authors present a compelling case that America's current reckoning on race has provided CEOs a unique opportunity to position supplier diversity as a primary strategy for accelerating racial equity and economic justice.

They refer to this moment as, "the intersection of value and values" and the vehicle they use to outline their recommendations to leadership teams and board members is A.G. Lafley's 2009 Harvard Business Review article, "What Only the CEO Can Do". The "value" is the contribution to operational excellence and shareholder value derived from diverse-owned suppliers and business partners and the "values" is the contribution diverse businesses make to corporate values, including racial equity and economic justice.

Ms. Michel and Mr. Moore end their essay with a call to action by corporate CEOs regarding access to the American Dream for diverse businesses and how to make that happen

The essay is a must read for leadership teams and all who advise them.

For a copy of the essay, please email: [email protected]

RGMA is the leader for setting the bar for supplier diversity excellence.

The RGMA Five Levels™ of Supplier Diversity is the gold standard for measuring corporate supplier diversity programs.

SOURCE RGMA